We have made more progress mapping neighboring planets than we have our own seven seas. We know more about the dark side of the moon and the topography of Venus and Mars than we do of our ocean floors. Recent development, however, of sophisticated technologies for ocean data collection and management has made it possible to imagine--and in some cases to begin to realize--a tremendous potential for mapping and interpreting ocean environments in unprecedented scope and detail.

GIS is at the forefront of these advancements in mapping, charting, and the visual display of both the deep and the shallow ocean. This special section of ArcNews touches on three recent applications-the use of a GIS in planning a hypothetical search and salvage operation for a sunken World War II German U-boat in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in mapping the coastal seafloor of Tasmania, and in surveying the coastal regions of the United States to provide an official and accurate delineation of the shoreline for the production of nautical charts and accurate geographical references.

ArcGIS Marine Data Model

Another advancement has been the development of the ArcGIS Marine Data Model--which represents a new approach to spatial modeling in a way that promotes better integration of many important features of the ocean realm, both natural and man-made. This has proven to be a boon for the marine community (i.e., people who apply GIS to the coasts, estuaries, marginal seas, and/or the deep ocean: academic, government or military oceanographers, coastal resource managers and consultants, marine technologists, nautical archaeologists, marine conservationists, marine and coastal geographers, fisheries managers and scientists, ocean explorers/mariners, etc.).

The goal of the model is to provide more accurate representations of location and spatial extent, along with a means for conducting more complex spatial analyses of marine and coastal data, by capturing the behavior of real-world objects in a geodatabase. The model--a work in progress--also considers how marine and coastal data might be more effectively integrated in space and time, particularly into the all-important third and fourth dimensions.

Visit dusk.geo.orst.edu/djl/arcgis or www.esri.com/marine for more information.